Prevention, Policy, and Managment

Chronic diseases are burdensome on our current healthcare system because they usually persist throughout life, are increasingly prevalent, and are poorly managed. Many chronic diseases occur as a consequence of lifestyle. Unlike, many other health problems many chronic diseases CAN be easily addressed through non-medical measures, such as diet and exercise. The key to reducing the burden of chronic diseases is through prevention. This prevention can be achieved through preventative medicine approaches, such as increased screening and guidance on lifestyle issues by primary care doctors. Additionally we must enact policies that support healthier lifestyles. There are many that already exists, such as smoking restrictions in public places and the requirement of nutrition labels on foods. However, it is evident that these policies still fall short. We must enact policies that further promote healthy lifestyles, such as school-based nutrition and physical activity programs and mandates to primary care doctors in regards to preventative care.

In addition to the prevention of chronic conditions we must also improve our current regimen for how we manage these conditions. Unfortunately, too many patients don't full understand the implications of their conditions and make very little effort to improve their health. When they ultimately suffer the consequences of their inaction our healthcare system suffers as well. Many of the later stages of chronic conditions involve very costly treatments and procedures. 

The best example of this is the burden of diabetes. Many individuals that develop diabetes have the opportunity to avoid this disease through lifestyle changes. If they are screened while pre-diabetic there is a window of opportunity to motivate them to change their lifestyle and avoid diabetes. However if this fails and they develop diabetes they are now in a new category of disease management rather than prevention. Tight control of blood sugars in diabetic patients is key to preventing or delaying the onset of more costly complications. However, when this too fails we are left with patients that have few lifestyle options left to improve their health and we must manage them with more costly treatments, like dialysis.